GYMNASTICS : Group Gymnastics : Part 6/6 : GRYFFINDOR

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GYMNASTICS : Part 6/6

GRYFFINDOR THREAD

Welcome to the gymnastics part of the HE Olympics!

Instructions

There
are 6 parts to the gymnastics which you must complete all of them. Each
part involves only a little work and all points will be added up
throughout to determine medal winners when gymnastics close.

Parts 1-5 are scheduled upon the calendar. Part 6 is open from now until close of part 5.

Part 6 : Group Gymnastics

You
must put together an RPG performance of gymnastics in any way you feel
you want. Use your house event planning forum if you need to plan
before the performance here.

Only participants who have signed up for this event can complete:

KatieBellaTrix
weasleybrother08
RhiannonMei
FaerieOfDoom
Samantha Granger

~ Announcer ~

Welcome Ladies and Gentlemen to the team performance of Gryffindor, featuring such fantastic performers as KatieBellaTrix, weasleybrother08, RhiannonMei, FaerieOfDoom, and Samantha Granger. Each shall perform on an apparatus out of Vault, Beam, Floor, Uneven Bars, and two other events, though someone will do a second one as well. Unless someone falls, we're almost guaranteed a great performance by each of these gymnasts. But will someone stumble and fall? Might it be weasleybrother08, or might RhiannonMei tumble to the lowest score? Will all five stick their landings, or will it just be a few, like KatieBellaTrix, FaerieOfDoom, and Samantha Granger? Of course, no one might stick it, but with this Gryffindor team I'm sure there'll be at least one. So sit back and relax everyone, and welcome once again to the team performance of Gryffindor Gymnastics!

GYMNASTICS : Group Gymnastics : Part 6/6 : GRYFFINDOR 2dag9sj

GYMNASTICS : Group Gymnastics : Part 6/6 : GRYFFINDOR 2dag9sj

Samantha Granger
Gryffindor
Hometown: London, England
Event: Vault
Music: Breakaway by Kelly Clarkson
Picture

Samantha sits nervously on the Gryffindor gymnastics team’s bench. It is time for the full team event, and she is going first. She has always disliked going first because it makes her way more nervous than it should. She prefers to watch others go so she can critique them and compare their routines to her own. Plus she likes knowing what score she has to beat. Trying to put all of this out of her head, she takes a sip of water and looks around the room at all of the other contestants. She can see someone finishing up a floor routine and someone else just starting their beam routine. Looking at the other events isn’t helping so she switches her gaze over to the stands. “That’s better,” she thinks as she gazes around. Straining her ears she can make out the screams for Gryffindor over the other noise. There are dozens of banners in red and gold, and looking around at all of her housemates, her nerves began to ease.

Listening for the announcer to call her name, she smiles at her teammates and stands up to stretch. After placing her water bottle back into her duffel bag she first stretches her quads, her hamstrings, her back, and then her arms. Jogging in place to get her blood moving she runs over her routine in her head once more. “Front handspring, ½ turn, push off, turn, twist, land.” Having flubbed the landing a couple of times in practice, she was determined to stick it this time. Knowing it would be her turn soon she pats her hair to make sure it is all still in place, and tightens her red and gold hair ribbon. As she adjusts her new leotard she smiles to herself. She really likes her team leotard; it is red with a gold outline and has a Gryffindor shield on it.

Hearing her name and event called over the loudspeaker, Samantha gives one last grin to her teammates and walks toward the runway. With each step forward, her nerves loosen. Waiting is always the hardest part. Reaching the runway, she takes the chalk and applies it to her hands and feet. Stepping up to the end of the runway she gently loosens every joint and muscle. As she waits for the signal from the judges, she smiles at their table.

At the signal from the judges, Samantha takes one deep breath and starts her run. She takes long fast strides down the runway with perfect sprinter form. She always forgets how longs this run seems, and today is no better. The horse at the end seems to get farther away with each step forward. As she counts each step in her head she approaches the end. Knowing she has to get some extra momentum for the full twist at the end she braces for impact as, with a final step, she throws out her arms and does a perfect Yurchenko entry: a round-off back hand-spring with a half turn before she touches the horse. As she goes though each turn she makes sure that her knees are tightly together and her legs are straight to minimize wind resistance and get those extra style points.

Breathing out, she pushes firmly and quickly off of the horse pulling everything tightly in. Her leg begins to cramp and she realizes that she is too tense. Taking another deep breath, and trying to loosen up, she does a front layout somersault with a full twist. As she begins to land, she lets out a big breath and surprises herself by landing with her feet firmly planted on the ground, with the only problem being that her legs are a little too bent because she hit the mat a little harder than she meant to. Arms in the air she salutes at the judges and then glances down to make sure she landed inside the lines. Feet barely inside the boundaries she is very satisfied. Smiling and waving at the stands, she jogs back over to the Gryffindor bench and gladly takes the offered towel. Sitting down she takes her water bottle back out of her duffel bag and takes a drink while, humming to herself, she waits to see her score.

~ Announcer ~

Wasn't that performance just amazing?! It looks like Gryffindor made the right decision putting Samantha Granger on vault. Great job Samantha Granger! Now the rest of the Gryffindor team has a lot to live up to. I feel bad for whoevers up next, and it looks like it's RhiannonMei on beam! Will she be able to out do the amazing performance by her teammate? I think she has a chance, this is her signature event after all. It's amazing to see all these girl's harwork paying off. Most of them have been traiing sense the tender ages of pre-school and kindergarten. It's been a long ride.

Now, if we could all turn our attention to the beam, it looks like RhiannonMei is getting erady to start...

Name: June Mei
House: Gryffindor
Hometown: Beijing, China
Event: Balance Beam
Music: Traditional Chinese drums
Picture:

June took a deep breath as she gazed at the colored line on the ground. Concentrating on this element, she pointed her leg forward and propelled herself into a front pike salto, spinning and then landing in a step out. She lowered her eyes from where they had been staring out in front of her and looked at the ground. Yes, she had landed on the colored line. Sighing, June turned and looked at the real beam, the actual apparatus that she would be performing on. Samantha had already performed on the vault, and June hoped she'd be able to do as well or better on the beam, though they were two different events. She realized it was time for her to go, so June walked up onto the mat and stood next to the beam, waiting for the judges.

June raised her arms to acknowledge the judges and took a few deep breaths. She closed her eyes for a moment and told herself, 'Just go for it. Go give it your all, your best, and have no regrets.' She pointed her foot forward and ran the brief distance to the springboard. She jumped onto it like it was second nature to her, and used the energy to propel herself up and onto the balance beam. The landing sent a brief vibration through her body as she heard the dull thud of her feet against the beam. So far so good. Now came the hard part, the first element that really counted in June’s mind. As she took carefully positioned steps forward to the end of the beam, she gracefully moved her arms in half-circles around herself. Thank God for ballet lessons. Then, June raised her arms above her head and took a deep breath.

She bent down for more momentum and power, and pushed off. She held her breath as she felt her back arch and her hands sink towards the beam. They hit the surface and June kept going. It was almost too quick to think about, and June tried not to think too much. Sometimes, that distracted here. June continued this part of her routine, performing five back handsprings. It was comforting, feeling the slap of beam against hands and feet, and when she reached the end of it, she stuck the landing, standing tall with arms raised. Reflexively not allowing herself to contemplate how she had done, June continued her routine. She took a few controlled steps forward on the beam, making the necessary flourishes with her hands, and leaped right into the second trick.

For this, June took a leap forwards and propelled herself into a front pike salto. June tried to keep her breathing even as her feet slapped against the beam as she landed. Then, she brought her right foot up to her hip, down and to the back, and to its original position along with her instinctive hand gestures. She took a step back before taking two steps forward to the end of the beam while bringing her legs out to right angles to her torso. She turned around and took another deep breath.

Next, June began to run along the beam. When she was at the middle of the apparatus, June stretched her legs out into a split leap, keeping them at 180 degrees before bringing them back down again. As she landed, June merged her previous element with her next one, performing a layout step-out, landing on one foot and then the other. Immediately afterward, as if the movements were seamless, June leaped backwards into two pike saltos, finally landing with one foot slightly ahead of the other.

She took a step back and turned towards the crowd, raising an arm above her head in a semi-circle. She turned back around, her mind completely concentrated on her next element, the switch split side leap. June took a leap into what looked like a switch-split leap with her legs switching split positions in midair, but then she turned 1/4 in the air (the move had been exactly calculated), and landed sideways, facing a side of the crowd. With a couple more straight-legged steps, June moved farther down the beam and turned around with artistic gestures. She raised her arms above her head and did a relatively easy trick, a quick front pike jump.

Then, she took the last steps to almost reach the end of the beam, her arms always in motion, and turned around. She stretched out a leg farther up the beam with the knee bent, and raised her arms to chest-level. This was very hard and it truly tested the balance of a gymnast on the balance beam. In practice, June often used to falter and had to step out midway through the move. Taking a slow breath, June brought her back leg up and used the momentum to turn around in a full turn on the ball of her foot. It was achingly slow and she fought to keep the center of her weight in the same place as she turned around. However, fate had other ideas. When June had almost finished the turn, her foot wobbled and June's weight shifted, forcing her to bring her lifted leg down to the beam a second early in order to stay on the apparatus. June closed her eyes and took a deep breath. It was okay, just a wobble in a trick that most gymnasts wobbled on. But June wasn't and didn't want to be 'most gymnasts'.

She opened her eyes with new determination. Her next element was the last one before her dismount, and June wanted it to be perfect. She turned around to face the other end of the beam and took a large step forward. With the landing of the step, June propelled herself up into a front tucked pike salto, spinning forward with one leg held straight out. Though this part was difficult, it wasn’t the hardest part of the two merged elements. June landed on one foot and swept her other straight leg out behind her so that it was perpendicular to her torso. As she did so, she lifted her arms up so they made a T with the top of her body. Straining, June held the position for a few seconds before the lowered her lifted leg and moved it into a forward step. She took the necessary steps until she reached the end of the beam and turned, using her arms to help keep her in balance, though they were also a must to help artistically illustrate her movements.

It was time for the dismount. June took a deep breath and raised her arms. She was performing a double, double: A double twisting, double back somersault tumbling skill. It was one of the hardest elements of her routine, though the pressure of being the dismount made the pressure even worse. June placed a leg into a large front step and pushed off. Instinctively, her hands and feet performed the motion, the rest of her body following in tight formation. Finally, June felt the other end of the beam and pushed into a back salto with a full twist. For a second she was spinning in the air, but then June felt her feet touch down on the soft mat and she slightly bent her knees, trying as hard as she could to keep her feet together. Her arms flew up and stayed there as she waited to see if her body would disobey and step off. But no, she stayed as she was. Swiftly checking to make sure she’d stayed in bounds, June felt a rush of exhilaration race through her body as she straightened and grinned. Her cheeks hurt, she was smiling so much, but she felt great. June had done her best, though not perfectly, but that was okay. She relaxed and walked off to her seat, anxious to know her score.

Announcer

Wow! What a performance by RhiannonMei on the balance beam. I must say, there were some pretty impressively hard tricks done just now. The difficulty rating for that routine should wipe out any points lost for that tiny falter in balance. That was definitely the best beam routine we have seen in these olympics. This is looking to be the best Gryffindor team that has been seen in a long while.

To continue on with the amazing Gryffindor competitors, I believe we have KatieBellaTrix up next with her floor routine. Judging by her teammates performances, I'm sure that this next routine will also be one for the record books. Let's watch....

Last edited by KatieBellaTrix on Thu Oct 16 2008, 14:32; edited 2 times in total

Name: Katie Lynne Dugan
House: Gryffindor
Hometown: Charleston, North Carolina
Event: Floor
Music: Think by Katharine McPhee

Katie shrugged off her warm-ups and pulle dout her ear phones. They weren't doing her any good anyway, she couldn't hear anything but her own breathing and frantic heart rate. Her coach came up to her and put her arms around the athlete.

"You'll do fine." whispered the coach, internally hoping that Katie's nerves wouldn't get the best of her. She would really shine if she could just control her anxiety.

And with that Katie walked up the stairs to the mat and took a deep breath before stepping on to it. She scanned the audience hoping to see a glimpse of where her proud family was sitting. No luck. The stadium was kam-packed with fans and spectators, some loyal falloers of gymnastics, other just jumping on the Olympic bandwagon. But that didn't matter to Katie, she wanted as amn people as possible to expeirence the sport she loved.

With one swift motion she raised her arms and faced the judges. Their faces were hard and she could tell that they were going to be tough. These were the people she needed to impress. Her success depended on them to give fair and nonbiased scores. This didn't worry her though. She knew that all the judges would be professional and she wanted to prove to them that she was worthy of the score that she so badly wanted. She bounced on the balls of her feet and turned away from the judges to face the audience that was now almost silent with anticipation. Katie could almost feel all the eyes on her, and hear her mom's voice praying as she always did before her princess performed. She wanted to make them so proud.

The music started all background noise was lost. It was just Katie and her music once again. With the first beat came a pose then with the second came another. She smiled so bright on those poses you forgot that she was a 16 year old girl but instead you saw the little girl who would cry when leaving the gym at age five. She hadn't changed much. The enthusiams and hinger for succes was still there, but now she was more mature, beautiful and motivated to accomplish her dream.

As the song continued so did her routine. It was full of life and seemed effortless. With each beat in the first ten seconds she would step and pose with grace and poise. Kicking and piroutting her way onto center stage. As the words started coming she ran and did a kalypso into the corner ready to statr her first pass. It was a challenging one. She ran with all her might and launched herself into a roundoff backhandspring and then a one and a half. When she reached the other side, barelyn landing in bounds she smiled wide and danced her way to the next corner. The music was catchy and she always got energized while listening to it.

With a little shake she raised her arms to the air and started the next tumbling pass. Again it was challenging but the hours of practice had payed off and she executed it near perfectly. She danced her way across the floor once again scanning the crowd but not taking anything in. The time for her final and most challenging pass had come. While she was confident, she wasn't as consistant with this pass as she was with the others. With the adrenaline pumping she took her first steps and bounced into the air.

Flying through the air seemed to be the longets seconds of her life. She was flipping and turning but still so elegant she could have been a ballerina. Her toes were pointed and hands in the correct position. She held her breath as a the landing drew nearer and near. It was a blind landing so she could only see the floor a split second before she landed. And with that it appeared just as her feet touched it. She strightened up quickly and raised her arms, enjoying her own personal victory. But she wasn't done yet. She ended the routine with another leap and landed in a split. It was all over. What a victory for her. All her dreams had come true. The sound came back all at once as she ran to find her coach.

~ Announcer ~

Wow. Just wow. KatieBellaTrix's floor routine is truly one for the record books. It was absolutely fantastic and wonderful and amazing and breathtaking and... well... you can see I'm running out of words to describe it. It was just so beautiful; I think it brought a few tears to my eyes. Her grace and hard work can obviously be seen in her performance and I'll be surprised if she doesn't help her team attain the gold medal. Congratulations, Katie! Now, if everyone would please turn their attention to the other corner of the stadium... FaerieOfDoom is just about to start her event!

Name: FaerieOfDoom (Mel)
House: Gryffindor
Hometown: Sydney, Australia
Event: Trampoline
Music: Firestarter by Prodegy
Picture:

GYMNASTICS : Group Gymnastics : Part 6/6 : GRYFFINDOR Gymnasticszq2.th

GYMNASTICS : Group Gymnastics : Part 6/6 : GRYFFINDOR Thpix

Mel smiled and breathed in the ambience of the arena. The electrified air sent pleasing jolts of static down her spine, made goosebumps rise on her skin. She lived for the thrill of the competition, the adrenaline rush as she rose higher and higher into the air, a majestic bird all her own species.

Her stretches had warmed her muscles up, and she had to consciously remind herself to preserve that energy, when what she really wanted to do was get out there and do what she was born to do.

Her name was called, and her coach pushed her forward, murmuring her traditional, “Don’t do anything stupid,” as Mel walked away. It was her way of saying “good luck”.

Mel smiled faintly as her feet touched the bed of the trampoline and she first became airborne, but her elation was soon swamped by the intense concentration she felt washing over her. This was her time, and she was determined to get the points and win.

The first trick came easy: a somersault. Her body tucked and her muscles tightened in automatic response to her movements, it was easier than breathing, but it was only her first move.

Gravity held her in its unmerciful embrace as she fell rapidly, but she had already moved into position; front drop into a double back somersault with a full twist in the second.

Mel breathed deeply as she completed the full-out and transitioned into her third skill.

Making contact with the bed again, Mel went for the 3/4 front – and crash dived – to land in a back drop. The somersault was a little sloppy as she moved out of it, but Mel refused to let that daunt her as she mentally stepped through her next skill.

The bed was welcoming as she touched it once more, and was again and again as she performed some of her favourite moves, the double full followed by the triple, and then Fliffus before she completed the Adolph, ball out and then the full, and by that time she had felt herself grow weary. She was nearing the end of her endurance, but that was of no moment – she had but the one skill left to complete, and her coach had trained her hard for this one. She was determined to do right by all that hard work.

To Mel, the last skill was always crucial to the overall performance, after all, she had to land on her feet, and momentum was rather against that end. But she was trained, and she knew what she was doing.

Mel somersaulted with the pike, into a Back Cody, and felt her breath cease as she moved into the back somersault, one and one quarter, but then air came rushing back as she completed the skill and her feet were inevitably drawn back to the bed.

But the landing was true – she stood tall without wavering and grinned her triumph to the crowd, and tipped her coach a wink. No doubts.

This event has been closed. well done. Scores and medals will be up on brakdown thread shortly

» GYMNASTICS : Group Gymnastics : Part 6/6 : SLYTHERIN
» GYMNASTICS : Group Gymnastics : Part 6/6 : RAVENCLAW
» GYMNASTICS : Group Gymnastics : Part 6/6 : HUFFLEPUFF
» GYMNASTICS : Part 2/6
» GYMNASTICS : Part 3/6